


The Thing With the Butterfly Effect Is, You Need a Butterfly To Start the Hurricane

by WhyWhyNot



Series: Stepfather would be the closest word but it doesn’t quite fit [1]
Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: First Meetings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:02:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25306444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyWhyNot/pseuds/WhyWhyNot
Summary: Danny meets Colin for the first time.(Takes place before Fifteen Minutes Before Six)
Relationships: Danny Hebert & Colin Wallis | Armsmaster | Defiant
Series: Stepfather would be the closest word but it doesn’t quite fit [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1785541
Comments: 50
Kudos: 93





	1. POV Danny

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gerbilfriend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gerbilfriend/gifts).



Danny’s shoes are officially dead. He now has two options, and those are to buy new ones or use ducktape necromancy on those ones.

Danny sights.

New shoes it is. There’s a little shop that sells them on his way to work, he'll buy some in passing.

It’s only that night, back at home, that he realizes his wallet is missing.

\---

The day after, the phone rings in the middle of breakfast.

“Hello?”

“ _Hello. Am I talking to Danny Hebert?_ ”

“Yes?”

“ _My name is Colin Wallis. I believe I have found your wallet. Do you know where and when we could meet so I could give it back to you?_ ”

Thank fuck. It would take time and money to replace the IDs in that wallet, and Danny would rather avoid it.

He asks Wallis to meet him in the evening in a cheap coffee shop near the docks.

(He’s not stupid enough to invite a stranger in his home.) 

\---

Wallis is late. By half an hour.

Danny is about to leave when someone sits in front of him.

“Mister Hebert?”

“Mister Wallis? How did you know…?”

“It was you? The picture on your ID.”

Oh. Yes. That makes sense.

“Sorry for being late. There were… Complications at work.” 

Wallis hands him his wallet, and makes to leave. To Danny’s surprise, the money is still inside. 

(He looks tired. Exhausted. The same exhaustion Danny sees in the mirror.)

“Wait.”

Wallis stops.

“Let me at least pay you a coffee.”

“I don’t want to…”

“Please. I owe you that much. And no offense, but you look like you could use one.”

Wallis hesitates, but sits down.

“Thank you Mister Hebert.”

Colin Wallis, Danny can’t help but notice, has a very nice smile.


	2. POV Armsmaster

Armsmaster found a wallet.

He stopped a thug from robbing a small shop while on patrol, and there was a wallet on the floor, so he picked it up.

It doesn’t belong to the thug, or to any of the customers.

\---

Colin gets caught in a minor fight with Squealer, who crashes one of her vehicles in a building, and escapes in a stolen car while he evacuate civilians.

(He doesn’t trust those fumes not to be toxic, nor the engine not to spontaneously explode or something. It’s _tinkertech_ , which makes it impredictable by definition, and it’s _Squealer’s_ tech, and Squealer isn’t exactly known for making _safe_ things.)

Then, he gets caught in paperwork.

 _Then_ , he has to have _yet another_ talk with Ethan about his behavior towards Samantha.

All in all, by the time he finally manages to find the wallet owner, it’s to late to do anything about it.

He’ll call in the morning.

\---

At the last moment, he decides Armsmaster shouldn’t be the one to call.

(Less paperwork this way. Less PR requirements. Less time wasted. No hero, just a citizen helping another.)

His family name feels almost foreign to his own tongue.

\---

He’s running late.

It’s Rory’s fault. He came to talk to him in his workshop, and since he wasn’t there, he went to look at his tool and accidentally short-circuited the spare halberd he was working on, and _set the damn room on fire_.

It’s going to take him at least a month to fix everything that got damaged.

(On a completely related note, Rory is going to be on shit duty for the foreseeable future.) 

At least the coffee shop Hebert chose isn’t on the boardwalk. The Enforcers always look at him sideaway when he goes there in civilian guise. 

\---

He gives the wallet to Hebert, and is about to leave when the man proposes to pay him a coffee.

He almost says no.

He has _work_.

(He thinks about the broken tech in his workshop and feels knots in his stomach and throat.)

(He’s _tired_.)

(He’s so damn _tired_.)

(He just…)

(He can’t...)

(He’s…)

An hour. He’s going to give himself an hour, and then go back to work.

“Thank you Mister Hebert,” he says, and he gives the man a tentative smile.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone asks, I will write a version of this meeting in Colin’s POV.


End file.
